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Skjåk

James the Fiddler's Cottage

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Skjåk

Description

About 8 km to the west of the township centre of Bismo along the main road you find Fel-Jakup-stugu. Here the legendary fiddler Fel-Jakup (fel=fiddler; Jakup=Norw. for James) lived with his wife and their five children. Jakup lived from 1821 to 1876. The people listening to his play said that it was like listening to nature itself. It was easy to understand that he got his inspiration from the whistling in the pine tops, the sounds from the river and the booms from the neighbouring mountain Øyberget. He was physically frail and ill suited to hard farm labour. He provided for himself and his family by playing the fiddle, something which was not always looked upon with favour in a rural society. He and his family doubtlessly made their sacrifices for his art. Even though nature was his main source of inspiration, he was probably influenced from his many travels as well. He got in touch with well-known fellow artists like Myllarguten and Ole Bull. People from many places in Norway were given the opportunity of listening to his beautiful play. Like many other artists Fel-Jakup was no honoured until long after his death in 1876. A quotation from Ole Mørk Sansviks’s book “Folk Music in Gudbrandsdalen” shoes this; “….a poet on hisfiddle, an artist with the power of carrying away the moment like nobody else.”.

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  • Cultural heritage Cultural heritage
Last updated: 8/7/2011 Source: Nasjonalparkriket
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